Martin Dixon of The Horse Watchers reacts to a hugely successful week for the team and offers his insight on their upcoming runners.
Recent Winners
Rhoscolyn
We had Intervention and Rhoscolyn, two of our old stalwarts, winning within 24 hours of each other, so that was a good week.
Rhoscolyn deserved that win in the Golden Mile. We've campaigned him heavily around Goodwood and Epsom for the last couple of years and he's won the majority of the big handicaps he can win at those tracks. That Golden Mile was probably the highest-value handicap we realistically feel we could win with him, and he managed to do it.
All the stars aligned on the day - the rain came, we got a good draw and Danny [Tudhope] was able to switch to ride him because the other horse was a non-runner. Through the race I thought he got a great position, travelled well and there was only a very brief moment when you wondered if was going to get enough room to open up, but once the gaps came he was straight through them and it was a pretty comfortable win.
There's a seven-furlong race back at Goodwood in a couple of weeks, but it depends on what the ground is like - if it is too quick we will probably just hang fire. But given suitable ground conditions that will be the obvious race.
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Intervention
Intervention is a specialist around Wolverhampton. He has won a lot of races around a lot of different tracks, but he seems to come to life around Wolverhampton. It's a bit like Rhoscolyn at Goodwood.
He got a good draw, a nice uncomplicated ride by Ali [Rawlinson] and from a prize-money perspective it was excellent as we're looking at a horse that can't run for really good money all that often. But that race was there and he managed to take it. He doesn't show any sign of losing his enthusiasm or ability.
War Howl
War Howl has won his last two starts and it's been very good to get him on the right path. When we bought him we hoped he would be a progressive three-year-old. It took a couple of runs to work out what he wanted, but he seems very well suited by straight tracks and the way he won at Ascot suggests we may get more improvement out of him going up to a mile.
James Doyle felt he hit a bit of a flat spot and took a while to get going, but he was strong in the finish. We always felt at the start of the year that going to a mile would suit him, but when we tried it at Nottingham the track was all wrong and we didn't really learn anything. We went back to seven furlongs and that has worked the last twice, but I think any more improvement might come over a mile. There's a possible race at Newbury over a mile at the end of August.
Upcoming runners
Ribble Vibe - 16:13 Thirsk, Friday
For a horse we paid 8,000 guineas for, I was very pleased with him when he was third at Newcastle as it showed he can be competitive off his rating. When you've bought a horse for 8,000 guineas and they can be competitive off a mark in the mid-80s you've got a good buy. We've still got to learn if he's as good on the grass - his pedigree would suggest he should be - but his win in France came on the all-weather and then last time was back on the all-weather, so he has to prove he's fully effective on turf. It's only a small field, he stayed the trip well last time and I think he should have a pretty good chance if he backs up that last run.
We've not had him long, he's only been with Dave [O'Meara] for three weeks but he's been happy with how he's settled into his routine. We didn't expect to be running him back this quickly, but he's settled into everything well and this is an opportunity to find out more about him.
It might be that he needs more time to fully improve as we hope that he might, as he's not been with Dave for long, but it looks a good opportunity and on his best Irish form he should have a very good chance. When we bought him we thought he would probably go up in trip, but we're still starting him out over seven furlongs. It's a bit of a learning curve but on the best of his runs in Ireland he'd probably take the beating.
Royal Zabeel - 15:07 Newmarket, Saturday
We need to get him back on track as he's disappointed us the last twice. The record is starting to mount up and he's looking like a better all-weather horse, but the problem for us is there's not going to be that many opportunities to run him on the all-weather given his big rating.
He ran well on the Rowley Mile over six furlongs earlier in the season and we're just hoping he can show his spark again.
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